The princess and the pacifier

The fear

At the time, I was scared the pacifier would become the bane of our existence. I'd heard horror stories of binkies falling out in the middle of the night and of weary moms having to pop that sucker back in for an infinite number of times.

I'd seen children with overbites and silently judged, "too much paci."

I'd been to the mall and seen 3-year-olds happily plugged up.

This thing wasn't going to get me. Oh no. I was smarter than that. Or so I thought.

Giving in

After a few weeks, our baby's crying was too much, and I was done being a human pacifier. So my husband and I had a quick conversation.

"Should we go for it?"

"I don't know. Do you think she really needs it? Because you know we don't want to break this thing out for anything less than an emergency."

"I agree. I think we're there."

"All right." (heavy sigh) "I'll go get it."

Seconds later, I returned with a tiny green and white binkie and put it in her sweet, screaming mouth. We held our breath in anticipation. Silence fell over our house and we saw our little girl relax into a moment of bliss. We felt relief at first, then panic.

"I think she's had it long enough."

"I know. I don't want her to get dependent on it."

"Should I take it out?"

"I don't know. She looks so happy."

A mind of her own

Two weeks later, our little princess showed us by finding her thumb – and she hasn't looked back since.

So much for my paci fears. She's 4 years old now and still best friends with her thumb. And unlike the pacifier, her thumb isn’t something I can take away.

Postscript

We've been trying to wean our daughter from thumb-sucking, but it hasn't been easy. I'm almost ready to offer her a pacifier before our next dentist visit in hopes that her overbite will correct itself!

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